By Eileen Katz

For those who can’t get enough of Susie Essman (aka Susie Greene in HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm), we’re using the occasion of Curb’s final season to ask Susie again: Why the West Side?

In 2017, the first time the Rag met with Essman, she explained how she had moved to the UWS from an apartment in the Village nearly 40 years earlier because she had an opportunity to (illegally) sublet a rent-stabilized fourth-floor walkup on West 73rd Street. She stayed there for nine years and has lived in several UWS locales since.

Essman’s thoughts on what she still loves about the UWS, and her experiences with the show’s final season, have been edited for length and clarity. (For previous Rag conversations with Essman, go here and here).

WSR: Why the West Side, still, Susie?

SE: This is my home! I’ve got a house outside the city but whenever we come across the bridge and we get off at the 79th Street exit, I feel like I’ve really come home.

[In 1980, when Essman first moved here,] Amsterdam was scary. Needle Park was right at that corner and you couldn’t really walk up the avenue. There was that little pub on the corner, P&G, that had the greatest fried chicken. And then Vinny’s Pizza was right there, too, which had the best pizza in the city. This is my sadness! It’s still home to me but I am so sad about all the mom-and-pop shops that have had to leave.

Thankfully we still have The Town Shop, where I get all my brassieres. But the empty storefronts are heartbreaking. You know, this is what happens when you get old!  People who were part of the fabric of your life move on. There were always those people in the neighborhood who you don’t know but you have names for them: “Oh, there’s the Bermuda shorts guy.” When I lived on 76th Street, there was this guy, even in the middle of winter, he’d always just be wearing Bermuda shorts.

And: “Oh, there’s the purple swing coat old lady who I pick up when she falls on the ice.” You don’t know their names, but you’ve got an association with them. Now, so many of them are gone or moved, so I don’t have the same social circle that I used to have here. But it still feels like home.

To me that’s the beauty of this city, this neighborhood. It’s constantly changing and constantly evolving. It’s not a place that’s static. It’s a place of growth and humanity. I really do believe in NYC and that it is the great human experiment of the 20th and 21st century.”

Tell me some of your new favorites in the neighborhood. You’ve got the new Morton Williams here. That must change your life a little bit?

I can buy bananas now at 6 in the morning if I want to! I don’t have to walk all the way up to Fairway anymore. In terms of new stores, I’m very excited about the new Nordstroms. We’ve never had a department store this close to the Upper West Side.

And restaurants! There’s that new fish place, El Fish Marisqueria, which has delicious food. Bondi Sushi is so great up on Broadway. I had lunch the other day at Friend of The Farmer. It’s nice to see new places here. When I first lived up here it was a wasteland. There was Café Luxembourg, and that’s it! [When The New York Times interviewed her for a piece earlier this year, it was over lunch at Café Luxembourg.]

Speaking of Upper West Side iconic favorites, if you were stuck on a desert island and could only have one thing from Barney Greengrass, what would it be?

Probably the whitefish salad. But then I’d have to hope that I was stuck alone, because, you know, the breath after that.

Can you describe what a typical Upper West Sider is?

“Someone who’s PASSIONATE! Even if you’re not Jewish, you’re Jewish. You’re lefty, by and large – not far, but liberal. You’re not a label whore.

If you’ve got money you’re not flashy, and you care. You care about your community, you care about your neighbors, and you’re a caring person and that’s what a liberal to me means. I don’t see it as a dirty word.

Sometimes we’re brusque because we’re busy! And we walk fast. And we love dogs. Let me ask you, did you live up here before the pooper scooper laws? It was a nightmare. People who don’t clean up after their dogs are a real pet peeve of mine. If I see someone not scooping after their dog I have confronted them. I let them have it.

Now is that you or Susie Greene? What kind of reactions do you get? Are you recognized?

Sometimes, sometimes not! The beauty of being Susie Greene is that if you confront people, they actually like it. But most of the time they don’t recognize me because I like to think MY fans are considerate. You don’t have a bag on you? Here, I’ve always got an extra in my bag – take mine.

We are well into the final season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”  How are your UWS fans treating you?

You know, they treat me like family, which is always a good feeling. People on the UWS think they know me, for obvious reasons, and I understand that.  A lot of them really do because they’ve seen me over the past 40 years either doing standup, or on Broad City or Curb, so there’s a little sense of proprietorship. Like, I’m theirs. And I understand it and I accept it gladly.

Do you really think this is the end of Curb?

Yes. When Larry [David] talked to me about it before we started shooting about a year and a half ago, it felt right to me. Other times he’d said it was the end and I’d say, “No, it’s not.” But this time it just felt right to me, especially after [Richard] Lewis died. [Lewis, a comic and actor, played a fictionalized version of himself on the show.] Those two are like me and Joy [Behar]. They started their careers together and they were best, best friends.

This season has been stellar so far!

Yes, we definitely did not jump the shark. People are still wanting more. I don’t think people realize how much work it is to create this series. For Larry, it’s a good 18 months straight, between writing the outlines, shooting the show. He is there every day for every scene. And then the editing. He watches every single take during the editing.

Which makes sense, because it’s improvised so every take is different. And the cameos do not disappoint! (spoiler alert!) Sienna Miller, even the boss, Bruce Springsteen! How did the Lori Loughlin story line come about?

Larry wrote it first and then he asked her and she was game. It allowed her to make fun of herself. And I do think that’s a quality everybody needs. Don’t take yourself too seriously.  And it made her look good!

Larry does this all the time. He wrote season nine, the Fatwa season, the whole Lin Manuel Miranda storyline, without knowing if Lin Manuel Miranda was available, or interested. If Lin Manuel Miranda had said no, I don’t know what he would’ve done. He would’ve had to re-write the entire season, which is a huge endeavor. And he’s done this several times and it always works out!  It’s the Larry magic touch! It’s how he also gets away with so much political incorrectness, too.  He makes himself the jerk, and it just works.

Were you able to take any mementos when the show wrapped?

Definitely some Susie Greene outfits. Definitely a caftan or two. The last time we shot at Susie and Jeff’s house, I took a three-foot long metal leopard statue. It might be a bank. Very Susie. And of course, my most prized possession, which is hanging in my powder room, is the Susie Greene portrait from season 10 that Larry gave Susie for her birthday. It’s huge!

How was saying goodbye to Susie Greene?

I’ll miss Susie for sure. You know, this show has given me the chance to be creatively involved in a way that no other show could have, because it’s improvised. We’re given an outline, it’s about seven to twenty pages, depending on the scene, and there’s no dialogue. Every morning, I would show up to the set and not have any idea of what’s going to happen, and it just comes from my head.  For me as a creative person, it was an incredible experience.

I’ve said my goodbyes to her, and her wardrobe. I feel like I’ve done with her as much as I possibly can. I’ve yelled, I’ve screamed, I’ve dressed like a peacock, and, you know, I’m ready to move on to something else. What that is, I don’t know, but as long as it’s funny and I’m working with great people, I don’t care. I hope it’s in New York! I’ve schlepped to LA all these years. I’m the only one in the cast who didn’t live in LA.

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